Seriously, What Is V.S. Naipaul’s Problem?

Oh boy, V.S. Naipaul. You’re one of our greatest living authors, but you’re always spoiling for a brawl, aren’t you? Just after squashing a 15-year feud with Paul Theroux, the writer who’s also made an enemy of Derek Walcott has picked a fight with half the world’s population: women. The Guardian reports that, in an interview at Britain’s Royal Geographic Society this week, Naipaul said he doesn’t think any female writer (living or dead) is his equal. Jane Austen? Nope. Too “sentimental.” So, there you have it, folks. Hundreds of years of writing by women from all over the world — all negligible in comparison with V.S. Naipaul! Virginia Woolf, George Eliot, the Brontës, Jennifer Egan, Susan Sontag, Emily Dickinson, Madame de Lafayette, Zora Neale Hurston, Elizabeth Bishop, Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith? None of them can touch V.S. Naipaul in his own, truly humble and objective, opinion! Oh, and also? His lady editor is a freaking hack. Just for fun, readers, why not list some more female writers you prefer to Naipaul in the comments? [via Gawker]